What Hurts The Most
by gazse
Summary: Sequel to I Don't Love You, but can be read as stand alone. Goku comes home to find Vegeta gone, but he isn't worried...


Gazse: The sequel to _I don't love you... _but I guess you can ready it as a stand alone if you want...

Disclaimer: Don't own anything to do with Dragonball Z, apart from a few figurines and a candy dispenser thing with Vegeta on top (it's real cute!)

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What Hurts The Most

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Returning home to find the house empty, Goku wasn't worried.

This wasn't the first time he had departed for an indefinite amount of time while on bad terms with Vegeta.

He probably ran off to his little secret hiding place as soon as he felt Goku's ki enter the atmosphere; but he knew that the prince would sulkingly return in a matter of days when he starts to miss the big man's engulfing hugs and company.

So yeah, Goku wasn't worried in the slightest.

As the weeks came and left again, he still wasn't worried. The kids occupied a lot of his time, all of them wanting to become as strong as him. Not only that, but he had recently gotten another grandchild to 'fuss' over like a good grandpa should.

It was only when little Jessica Rose, the sweetest six year old girl with strawberry blonde curls, inquired softly as to where her grandpa Vege is. Only then did he notice the complete disarray of his home. Dishes stacked high with flies eating off them, his bed unmade, his clothes unwashed, everything seemed to have a layer of grime on it and mildew completely covered the tiles in the bathroom.

How had he not noticed this before?

Consulting his calendar, he was shocked to find it had been four months since he had returned, without a single word from his love.

This was the longest they had ever been apart since they had gotten together... while both still being on the planet... which Vegeta hopefully was.

His search began immediately, with the kids whining and groaning about his lack of time with them. First, he searched the places that he knew the prince was familiar with: West City, Kame Island, the woods around Goku's old house, the house Goku grew up in, the area where they first fought etc. However, every place turned up empty handed.

Next, he expanded his search by 100 kilometres, and when that had the same results, another 100 kilometres and so on with each new failure.

A month into his looking had him landing in a small town for rest. The town wasn't isolated, and wasn't without it's large shopping centre and local McDonalds, but it was small, and the type of town where everybody knew your name and could spot a stranger a mile away.

The hot midday sun beat down on his back as Goku wandered through the main street, ignoring the stares he got from his ruffled appearance. He had taken to doing all nighters with his search and it was starting to wear on him. He had also come up with a plan to keep his ki level down as low as possible, hoping Vegeta might led him in the right direction.

Realising his energy was at an all time low, he quickly entered a restaurant, ordered six steaks and grabbed a window seat to watch the people go by. The meal was delivered relatively quickly without even a suspicious glance in his direction, which was a first, but he ignored it.

The meal was polished off quickly, he signalled to the waiter for the check. The middle-aged balding man came over and watched him dig out his wallet, studying him.

"You a friend of Vegeta?" He asked gruffly.

Goku paused, "what?"

"Yeah," the man continued, almost to himself, "you have to be. That boy's the only one I've seen who put down food like that. Have to be related or something."

The Saiyan's mind caught up with him, "wait, Vegeta lives here? In this town?"

"Hmm?" The man stopped muttering, "live here? Nah. He just drift in from time to time. Lotta people would love to know where he lives, but he don't tell. Nothing but polite to everyone. Oldies love him, like a grandson to them."

"When was the last time he was here?" He was almost shaking in anticipation.

The man thought about it for a second. "Last time would have to be last Monday. Was looking a bit pale so I gave him a complimentary hot chocolate. Didn't eat as much as normal. Looked nervous and fidgety. If he was a smoker, I would've gotten him some cigs, maybe that would've calmed him..." he trailed off thoughtfully again.

Thoughts of throttling the man for information kept flashing through his head, but he forced himself to remain calm, no matter how appealing the thoughts were.

"Do you know when the next time he'll be here is?"

The man frowned, "nah, not really. Bet that boy's a traveler or something, can't seem to sit still while he's here. Itchy feet or something."

Goku nodded, accepting that the man had nothing more to tell him, and handed over some money for the meal and left, buzzing with the information he just got. All he had to do now was wait around for a while until Vegeta turns up again and grab him.

Then the other words the man said occurred to him. Nervous and fidgety... did that mean the prince had felt him slowly making his way out and was getting ready to make a quick get away? Or maybe he had been tracking Goku by his ki, and now that he was suppressing it, Vegeta didn't know where he was and that made him nervous... worried... scared?

He stopped the thoughts before they really got started. All he needed to do right now was get answers from Vegeta and get him back. Nothing else was needed.

It was almost anticlimactic the way he found the prince.

It was the fifth day of him being here, people had generally stopped giving him weird looks but they were all wondering what he was still doing here. He was also considered a regular at 'The Stack Shack' restaurant, and when he walked in, a waiter would say, 'the usual?' and Goku would nod and go sit at what he considered to be _his _table in the corner, waiting to see if this was the day Vegeta would walk in.

Anyway, he walked out having just finished lunch and started wandering. He had seen all there was to see around here, so he really didn't have a destination in mind, but then he saw him. It almost seemed like a mirage after so long without even a glimpse. There he was, looking through the window of a pet shop at all the puppies, smiling a tiny smile at the animal's antics.

Goku stands there, frozen as if suddenly made of ice. After so long searching for him, he never once gave thought as to what he would do when he found him. The decision was made for him as Vegeta caught sight of him, stared at him for a moment, as if he couldn't believe it, then bolted down the street, weaving through the crowd expertly. Goku took off a moment later, following much less gracefully, but gaining speed fast.

The Prince led him to the outskirts of the town and into the surrounding forest, hoping to outmanoeuvre his ex-lover. Unfortunately, now away from prying eyes Goku felt no hesitation in using his super speed and leapt for the smaller man, sending them both crashing into a river.

Vegeta surfaced with a gasp and tried to get to land to continue his escape, but his arm was grabbed and his body was pulled against a much larger one. He tried to struggle away but it was fruitless.

"Why d'you leave?" Goku voice was harder than he meant it to be, but it did succeed in getting an answer.

"You already know why," he ground out through clenched teeth.

The taller man was confused, "what?"

Vegeta managed to push away from his chest and turned to face the other Saiyan. "The last things, the last _damn_ things I was saying to you as you left, gallivanting off to save that planet. Did you not hear a word I said?"

"I- I thought you just didn't want me to go," Goku seemed almost, ashamed at what he just passed off as nagging. He should've realised that Vegeta only said things that needed to be saying.

"Well, I warned you. I told you I wasn't going to be there when you got back, and I wasn't. You're going to have to live with the consequences of your actions because I'm not coming back just to have everything stay the same."

"What if I change, I'll change for you." Goku was desperate, "I will."

The Prince snorted, "I don't believe you. You won't change because you honestly don't see how what you were was wrong. You don't understand why I was angry at always being left behind."

The tall Saiyan hung his head at the truth of it.

Vegeta shook his head sadly and swam back to land, taking off his gloves and wringing them out before turning back to his floating ex-lover.

"What you want is somebody to look after you, to not care that you do not give them a second thought, and then to welcome you back with open arms after not seeing you for months on end."

The Prince started to walk away, only turning back to say one more thing; "sorry, but I can't be that person any more." Then he left.

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Shit man, I've had this done for ages, but I never really thought it was ready to post…

But then I decided that I might as well give you guys something to chew on will I work out my other two stories.

And no, there won't be any more to this story, I know it's unresolved and there is no happy ending, but sometimes that happens. And really, it wouldn't be a very good story if Vegeta completely forgave him and happily went back to the life he had before, would it?

Reviews are love, and awesome and I really appreciate them J


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